


Budding Spring

by sunfield_oota (ocoa)



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: I should clarify the flower, M/M, Realising Your Feelings, Yuuto character study, Yuuto doesn’t like Sakura flowers, chiifuri ch3, mentions of grief, not the Sakitama player LMAO
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:08:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28809387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocoa/pseuds/sunfield_oota
Summary: Every year in March, when the Sakura start to bloom and fall, Sakaeguchi spends his break under a tree, far away from the flowers.
Relationships: Abe Takaya/Sakaeguchi Yuuto
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Budding Spring

**Author's Note:**

> Come be my friend at peachkans on Twitter! And sometimes ootaest on Tumblr ^^

Behind the fences surrounding the field, a little ways away from the school, there was a big tree. Its branches and leaves stretched far and grew thickly, letting light through only the slightest of spaces, casting the ground in pretty kaleidoscopic patterns. The air was cool from transpiration, and was quiet.

It was this place that Sakaeguchi sat, sometimes. 

He had a bit of a routine, you see. In the days leading to the end of March, when the cherry blossoms started to bloom and looking out the classroom window would see their town framed by pink petals, he’d find himself under the tree, staring up at its green leaves and the beginnings of new branches. He’d have a book out on his lap, something inane like the Lord of the Flies, and be overtaken by a numbing sense of tranquility.

Or perhaps, grief.

He barely even realised that his friends never ask where he’s going on those days. They just tell him that they’d see him at practice, and were strangely even more tactile than they usually were.

Except, in the second year of high school, when the cherry blossoms start to peek out, he was stopped by Abe with a hand on his shoulder before the lunch break started.

“Hey,” the other vice captain said, “you going to the tree?”

“Yeah, probably. What’s up?”

The hint of pink started high on Abe’s cheeks, almost unnoticeable. “I was thinking of taking a nap, and the trio get noisy during lunch.”  Especially Tajima , was what goes unsaid.

The sunshine was warm enough, he could see why a person would get snoozy, though the fact that it was Abe of all people doing it, the one who was teased for working too hard. Still, “if you don’t mind me reading.”

Abe grinned and,  hmm . “Yeah that’s cool.”

They head down, and Sakaeguchi settled where he usually does with a breath. Abe sat next to him, and their arms brush against each other. Sakaeguchi’s skin focused on the contact, but he forced his body still.

Instead, he flipped open the first volume of the week’s Jump.

At some point Abe’s head dipped, dropping and raising until he settled against Sakaeguchi’s shoulder. He shifted, and Abe rolled into the crook between Sakaeguchi’s head and shoulder where he rested more securely. Sakaeguchi pressed his lips together, but continued reading, ignoring how every so often breath would tickle his neck.

“ _Ngh_. ”

He glanced down, frowning when he realised Abe was having a nightmare. His friend’s eyebrows were furrowed, and a deep scowl cut his face in a way Sakaeguchi hadn’t seen it do since before they got into Nishiura. He remembered the fighting, back during the seniors, when Abe and Haruna would shout. He always looked so tired afterwards.

Sakaeguchi placed his hand on Abe’s head, palm against the folds between Abe’s eyebrows. He moved his thumb over the boy’s scalp, left to right, rhythmically. Abe’s breath hitched, but he continued to slumber, until the touch seemed to work and the tension in his body seeps away. The lines in Abe’s forehead smoothened out, and whatever was plaguing his dreams had left.

Sakaeguchi pulled his hand back, before deciding recklessly to interlock his right arm with Abe’s and press his palm against the warmth of his friend’s hand.

Then he continued reading, pretending he was reading the words and not thinking of the feeling of skin against skin.

This close, he did not think, he could feel Abe’s callouses, years of dedication out in the open.

He jumped when the bell rings, startling Abe awake too. Separating their hands fast enough that the other wouldn’t notice, Sakaeguchi schooled his face into a smile. “Looks like break’s over.”

Abe blinked slowly, before speaking, his voice thick with sleep. “Yeah. Um, sorry for falling asleep on you.”

Sakaeguchi shook his head. “It’s okay. Let’s go, if we run we should make it before Shiga-sensei gets to class.”

“Yeah.”

Sakaeguchi took a breath, steeled himself, and stuck his hand out. “C’mon, Takaya. Let’s go.”

Under the shade of the tree, the high points of his friend’s cheeks were dark and shadowed. He grasped Sakaeguchi’s hand and Sakaeguchi pulled him up.

He could feel someone’s pulse jump where their hands connected. Sakaeguchi paused, before saying, “thanks, by the way.”

“Hmm?”

“Throughout the time we’ve known each other, I’ve never seen you take a nap.”

Abe’s face turned red, quickly hidden beneath a palm, and there was a thrum of  cutecutecute under a layer of panic that Sakaeguchi wasn’t going to deal with at this moment. “I wouldn’t have, if you didn’t want me to. Sometimes it’s good to have time to yourself. But...you always looked lonely, when you look at the cherry blossoms.”

Sakaeguchi tightened his hands where they were still linked with Abe’s. “I didn’t know anyone noticed.”

“I heard you saying that you’d stop playing, after the seniors.” Abe’s eyes glanced around quickly, like he didn’t know where to look. “But I’m thankful, that you’re here.”

Sakaeguchi thought about the friends he’d made, the team that felt so intimately close knit he wondered if they could be destined. He looks back up at Abe, whose eyes had brightened, who looked like he was having fun playing again.

“Me too,” he said.  _ That you’re here. That I’m here. That we had a chance to get to know each other. _

His face felt hot.

At the corner of his vision, a flash of white and pink floated closer to them, before the petal landed on Abe’s shoulder. Unable to control it, Sakaeguchi huffed a laugh. He picked it off, and held the sakura petal in his hand.

“Where did that come from?”

He glanced back up at the catcher, and shrugged. “It was probably sent with the wind, or something.” He couldn’t ask for a clearer sign. His mother would probably like the team. She’d probably like Abe too. “We should get to class.”

It took the run to get to class before Shiga-sensei for them to remember to let go. Sakaeguchi’s hand remained warm, the ghost of a touch still at the edges of his mind.

Within his chest, startling present to the background sound of Shiga-sensei’s lecture, was the beginnings of spring. 

**Author's Note:**

> \- They weren’t late because Shiga saw them running and decided to be walk a bit slower. 
> 
> \- Also Abe didn’t mean to fall asleep. He just did because Sakaeguchi is super calming to be around
> 
> I know it doesn’t read super well, but I tried my best! I hope I gave Sakaeguchi the proper treatment he deserves! Best boy, everyone loves him.


End file.
